Suits of Swords and Cups
by Luna Tiger
Summary: XigZex; 26, 62 // 50 sentences; G to R // Watching with different eyes.


**Title**: Suits of Swords and Cups_  
_- _Pairing_: Xigbar/Zexion**  
Set**: Epsilon**  
Rating**: overall R**  
Notes**: Obvious spoilers for CoM and KH2 (Org and true names), alternate theories used, Zexion's origins in question (which were, no doubt, wrong, thank you BIG OL' TOME). And also the inspiration for Xiglette's two fics: _See You_ and _Leavetaking_.  
-_Completion date_: April 24th, '06

- b - e - g - i - n -

**01. Motion**  
"They call that dancing?" Braig scoffed; Ienzo rolled his eyes and folded his arms, until his social status was compromised with a yelp as Braig sought to teach them all what real dancing was, and Ienzo had no say in the matter.

**02. Cool**  
Ienzo felt the beginnings of envy well up in his chest, after witnessing children tackling into Braig, young women garnering for his attention, dogs wishing to play with him, and he could still hang onto the groceries.

**03. Young**  
Braig didn't need to remind people he was younger than he looked at heart, but even that justification didn't make Ienzo feel any less uneasy about enjoying the comfort of Braig holding him in the evening.

**04. Last**  
Xigbar momentarily reflected back to the boy who scolded and said he had "that thing too", and made a point to tell Sora he didn't compare to any of the other Keyblade Masters before him.

**05. Wrong**  
_this is bad this is wrong this is not good,_ screamed his mantra, but his mind was long disconnected from his body, which was leaning forward to intercept Braig's second kiss.

**06. Gentle**  
"Next time," Braig said affectionately, as he tied off the bandage, "remember that we're supposed to be doing this together...and not work alone."

**07. One**  
So maybe Braig's idea of courting wasn't standard, but Ienzo didn't stop blushing when Braig doted on him for no solid reason and double-checked in the mirror to make sure he hadn't changed genders in his sleep, when he was presented with a single yellow rose that afternoon.

**08. Thousand**  
Everyone had their "chance in a millennium" and Ienzo accepting his quasi-date proposal had Briag believing he'd just found the road to his.

**09. King**  
The overly exaggerated mouse was certainly a visitor they welcomed into their presence, but Braig couldn't fathom why Ienzo would only stare at the short monarch with a barely veiled loathing.

**10. Learn**  
The difference between Zexion and Ienzo became apparent the same time he discovered Xigbar and Braig were too, when Xigbar realized Ienzo wouldn't have tricked him into a tumble in the sheets...and Braig would've cared more about being used.

**11. Blur**  
So maybe there was that one time Ienzo worked when he wasn't supposed to, on a hot summer day and wound up fainting from heat exhaustion, but when met with Braig's worried, blurry twin upon waking up again, working on days like that might not be so bad.

**12. Wait**  
Braig liked moving fast and Ienzo liked moving slow; rarely Braig carried Ienzo off in a whirlwind of speed, oftentimes Ienzo kept Braig at his own leisurely pace, but most commonly, Ienzo followed his own stride, and Braig would be waiting patiently at the end of it with a impatient scowl hiding a grin.

**13. Change**  
Gone was the clean scar, replaced by something more horrible, and gone were the cute ears, replaced by sharp, pointed parodies, and Ienzo had less of a problem touching them now than he did before.

**14. Command**  
Surrounded by the blood-bathed field, with hearts rising into the air by the dozen and corpses vanishing just as quickly to become Heartless and Nobodies, Zexion passively recalled the challenge he was given by that vagabond of a man: _Take them out...and come back dirtied._

**15. Hold**  
It was the echo of what he thought he should do that kept him at Ienzo's side, as Ienzo thrashed and sobbed in the throes of his heart trying to reject his body, and wouldn't let go of his hand all through the night.

**16. Need**  
Little by little, second by second, his presence became more and more missed every time they separated, and Ienzo didn't understand the desire just to stay close to the elder apprentice.

**17. Vision**  
His newly rendered line-of-sight had only been a problem the first few months, but when Ienzo came down the stairs his hair brushed back and in the nicest attire he'd seen on him ever, Braig for the moment sorely missed having two eyes; he didn't want to miss this for the world.

**18. Attention**  
Dilan scowled and closed the door in Braig's face, drawing Ienzo's flustered attention back to him as he spat, "Try to not take him serious."

**19. Soul**  
"When the heart leaves, the body holds the soul, but when the soul leaves, there's no further existing....so would you want to live a half-life, Braig?"

**20. Picture**  
If Ienzo wasn't so happy _because_ of his companion, Braig would've been tempted to tear the photo down the middle and cut Elaeus out of it permanently.

**21. Fool**  
"Really, Xigbar," Luxord chided, "what's pouting going to accomplish when the boy is harder to crack than Demyx's skull?"

**22. Mad**  
When Braig strolled enticingly into Even's off-shoot room, wearing an outfit not at all appropriate for a lab and asking if Ienzo would find it sexy, it was the last straw that broke the Shoopuf's back before Even changed his mind about committing homicide, and figured no one would miss the twitterpated cyclops as he chased after him with a scalpel in hand.

**23. Child**  
"But that's just what you are!" Braig countered, and was unnerved by the very mature glare that retaliated against the unfair comparison.

**24. Now**  
"I'm old," he said, explaining his choice of a partner, "but why should I settle for someone my senior, when others my junior understand me more?"

**25. Shadow**  
Let the cold, the dark, the silent calm wash over them as they left for the world of the In-between, casting the unlight in fractured shards, sinking in and merging where feelings and hopes and dreams once slept, making them quietly fade away.

**26. Goodbye**  
There would never be a parting between them, and Xigbar tried to find it in himself to regret it.

**27. Hide**  
Ienzo had once (finally) touched the eye patch with a hesitant inquiry, and Braig had caught his hand and kissed his knuckles, warding him away without answers; Zexion touched the eye patch, demanding, and Xigbar let him see the swollen, empty socket with nothing more than a dispassionate, "Happy now?"

**28. Fortune**  
Braig choked on the pricetag and shuffled out of the shop like the world's most depressed soul, wondering how he was gonna scrape up enough to buy a damn puzzle cube worth an arm and a leg; he was already down a body part, he couldn't afford to lose more!

**29. Safe**  
Ienzo sighed, satisfied and warm and held so close, and his mind wandered to the story of Lady Yunalesca and her husband, musing fondly if Lord Zaon had made her feel this protected as her guardian.

**30. Ghost**  
There was a room dedicated to all thirteen of them in the castle (three rows of six, four, and two) and it was almost a year after the massacre of Castle Oblivion when Xigbar found himself in there, staring down at one purple floor marker for the last time before a barrage of gravity-tipped diamond darts demolished the tablet beyond recognition; "the past is the past," he murmured to himself.

**31. Book**  
Lord Ansem mulled over his apprentice's inquiry thoughtfully, and finally responded, "I'd suggest getting him a novel, but knowing you, you'd get him something much too inappropriate for his age," which made Braig grin sheepishly.

**32. Eye**  
Braig made a bet with a young gunman in the town that he could out shoot him with one eye closed with Ienzo close at hand; Ienzo scolded him beforehand and walked away beyond impressed afterward.

**33. Never**  
The fuzzy pink manacles dangled inches from his face and Braig laughed maniacally as Ienzo dived under the quilt and screamed, "Not in a million years!"

**34. Sing**  
Even's tendency to complain was once his worst enemy, as he stumbled upon Braig singing (like a dying hawk in a set of bagpipes) lines from I Wanna Be Your Canary while on one knee to an irate Ienzo; the ever-present need to demote The Idiot clashed soundly with the need to never have to admit he saw (even briefly) such a mind-scarring scenario.

**35. Sudden**  
Xehanort was caught watching them interact one afternoon, and somehow managed to connect it to Braig's recent streak of good behavior.

**36. Stop**  
The day it ended was terribly anti-climatic, to the point where Zexion just said, "No more," and Xigbar shrugged nonchalant.

**37. Time**  
_If I ever meet you again,_ he promised as he began to fade away, _I owe you nine years._

**38. Wash**  
Dilan wasn't fond of any of the chores that involved soap, water, and projectiles, not when Braig liked shoving sponges down people's shirts and had a bad habit of throwing the mop's disgusting dreads on Dilan's head ("Now you have real hair!"); he especially didn't like it when he was reduced to bribing Ienzo for his own protection.

**39. Torn**  
It was just another day when Braig would be running like hell was at his heels with Even hot on his trail, spewing verbal flames and death threats, and Elaeus made sure to go and remind Ienzo he was half-married to a suicidal lunatic; Ienzo agreed like he was regretting his choice.

**40. History**  
"The past is the past and well enough to stay there," is a common adage in Radiant Garden, but sometimes, Ienzo wished he had the courage to ask why one gold eye was missing, and a single, deep scar sliced through one side of his face.

**41. Power**  
So strange, to have control over another's life, to be their destroyer and their savior, and Zexion finally knew what Xigbar must have felt every time he took the boy and began to thrust harder.

**42. Bother**  
Saïx sneered at the insult volley Demyx and Xigbar wouldn't let die and placidly asked the boy beside him why the likes of them existed; Zexion kept his eyes sharply on Xigbar and replied, "Because we let them."

**43. God**  
Braig was terribly fond of making Ienzo cry out and couldn't smother his amusement when the only other name on Ienzo's lips wasn't his, allowing Braig the pleasure of whispering, "Give me time and I could be..."

**44. Wall**  
Touching wasn't the same anymore, not when it lacked the warmth it held, a barrier between them erected to replace their missing hearts; ever their punishment for defying Law.

**45. Naked**  
Bathing at the communal baths was supposed to be a relaxing affair; Ienzo couldn't relax when Braig purposely sauntered around without his towel, when everyone else just rolled their eyes and told Braig to stop being such a child.

**46. Drive**  
The fervor of their research finally became more important than anything, and while Ienzo and Braig's passion for each other began to pale in comparison, the strength Xehanort offered still kept them side by side.

**47. Harm**  
Xigbar had held Axel at gun point when he returned from Castle Oblivion, ready to pull the trigger; the redhead laughed and asked him why he cared, and stopped cold when Xigbar asked him the same.

**48. Precious**  
With the paper unresisting as the silver puzzle cube was lifted free, Ienzo asked enough questions to give Braig a headache all over again, but it wasn't as painful as dealing with its cost, and simply explained everything away with, "Just be happy with it; don't worry about anything else."

**49. Hunger**  
Maybe there was symbolism or maybe it was just a weird habit, but Braig cut his apples horizontally and Ienzo only thought to consider the star-pattern of the sliced core after he'd taken a bite.

**50. Believe**  
The cube was cold and heavy in his gloved hands as Zexion kept turning its pieces, Braig's assurance the foremost thing on his mind and knowing the pieces of their relationship could never be corrected so simply (nor did they seem likely to be corrected at all), so how come he kept thinking they could be...just like the puzzle?


End file.
